Patent GB-122638-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Bottle Capping Machines.
IPC: B67B3/02
Filed: 1919-01-18
Abstract: 122,638. Columbia Machine & Stopper Co, (Assignees of Kendall, C. W.). Jan. 18, 1918, [Convention date]. Capsules, applying. - In a bottle-capping machine, the bottles receive a continuous rectilinear movement and the capping-head which moves to and from the bottle carriage is also moved transversely with the bottles during the capping operation. The capping-head is carried by a link 39, Fig. 1, connecting cranks or eccentrics 35, 36 on horizontal shafts 32, 33 driven from a vertical shaft 25 which is driven through gearing from a motor 22. A vertical sliding connexion is provided between the head and the link 39 for adjusting the head to suit bottles of different heights. Lugs 91, Fig. 10, on the spring barrels 88 of the head embrace gibs on the link 39, and the head is raised or lowered by a screw 41 operated by means of a key 44. A rack 70 pivoted to the frame and meshing with a pinion on the shaft 74 oscillates the disk 75 which feeds the caps from the hopper 76 to the shoots 77. Levers 64 on the shafts of the capfeeding fingers 66 are engaged by a plunger 62 which has a pin engaging in a radial slot in an arm on a shaft 56 carried by the head. Lugs 63, 130 limit the movement of the plunger. An arm on the shaft 56 is connected by a universal joint with the lower end of an inclined selfadjusting link 53, which is connected by a sliding joint with a bracket 46 on the main frame. The sliding joint comprises a rocking head 47 pivoted to swing in a vertical plane and a guide-block 48 pivoted to the head 47 so as to swing in a plane at right-angles to the vertical plane, the block 48 forming a channel in which the link 53 slides. Fibre buttons carried by the plate 49 are pressed by springs against the link. The spring barrels 88, Fig. 10, of the capping-head each contain the usual ejecting-spring 79 and a heavier cap-crimping spring 81, while a supplemental spring 84 forces a small transverse plunger 83 into a recessed plate 82 on the hollow plunger 80. With an unusually high bottle or stiff cap, the plunger 83 is forced outwards by a cam surface on the plate 82, after which any further upward movement of the plunger 80 is resisted only by the friction of the head 83 and the spring 81. The bottle carriage 115, Fige. 1 and 6, is reciprocated by a crank 113 on a shaft 34 driven by the shaft 25. The front end of the crank 113 is mounted on a small shaft 95 carrying a spiral gear 96 meshing with a gear 97 on a vertical shaft 99 which carries a wheel 100 driving the bottle-conveying chain 101. The vertical turret shaft 126 is driven by sprocket gearing from the shaft 103. The bottles are carried by the turret 127 past a guide 123 to a gate 109 which is operated by a cam 104 on the shaft 103, and the bottles are then engaged by the fingers 102 of the chain 101 and conveyed in pairs on to the carriage 115 beneath the capping- head. The cranks 35, 36, 113 are of equal throw and are set in synchronism so that the reciprocating movement of the bottle carriage corresponds to the horizontal movement of the capping- head. After the caps are applied and the capping- head has released the bottles, they are again engaged by the fingers 102 and conveyed to the receiving shelf 129.